That Awkward Cross-Cultural Moment…

… when you pop out to the party supply store to grab decorations for the 30th birthday party of your best friend in Dubai, who just so happens to be gay.

… and when you get there, you can’t not buy the giant pride balloon that must have snuck its way through customs as a harmless party decoration into a country where homosexuality (and, one would assume, balloons promoting it) is illegal.

… and then you have to drive home through the most conservative neighborhood in Dubai with the pride balloon floating around the back of your SUV, and you finally make it into your building only to then have to share the elevator with a totally covered local woman.

… and you kind of whistle to yourself awkwardly throughout the elevator ride, like “doopty doopty doo, I just really like rainbows, I would never promote a lifestyle that is counter to the religious, moral, or cultural values of the UAE.”

… but then you remember that if she’s anything like many of her compatriots, she’s probably a couple steps on the naiveté scale away from linking a rainbow balloon with gay pride. (Case in point: I once had to explain the concept of gay marriage to a local colleague. Not defend it, mind you - we didn’t get that far - but just explain the idea. “So wait, a man… can marry… another man? Wait, I don’t understand.”)

Sometimes it’s the little things that make life in another world interesting.